Birdseye, Clarence Robert (1886–1956) created the modern frozen foods industry (see freezing; refrigeration; and convenience foods). He was an inventor on the heroic American scale of Thomas Edison. By his death, he had nearly 300 patents to his name in a number of fields. His ingenuity was the more potent for being allied to enterprise (shown as a child by his supplying small animals to collectors and zoos). He studied biology at Amherst College, which he left before taking his degree, and found work with the US Biological Survey in New Mexico, Arizona, and Montana.
